Don't call me while the ___ are playing!

    There are two kinds of people. Sports people and non-sports people.

    Though there are varying levels, it doesn't take much to fall into the first category. If you have ever cared the least little bit about any type of mainstream sport, you belong in the first category. If you are at least generally conscious of said sports, I could argue that you belong in the first category.

    I have to admit, I know that people that fall into the non-sports category do exist, but I've never had much experience in dealing with these people.

    Until I married my husband.

    Now any of you that know my husband Noel know that he of course falls into the "sports people" category. Loves SEC football and NASCAR, follows the NFL and also keeps an eye on all the other mainstream sports - basketball, baseball, sometimes golf and maybe even tennis, depending on who is playing. (I'm still having trouble getting him to see the merits of soccer, but I'm confident we'll get there.)

    He did not, however, get his sports consciousness from his father.

    Sunday night, Noel and I were glued to the television watching the Saints and Brett Favre (and the rest of the Vikings) duke it out to see who would go to the Superbowl. I was cheering wholeheartedly for the Saints while he was leaning toward siding with Brett. (I think he just did that to make me mad.) With the score tied and three minutes left in the game, Noel's cell phone rang. Since we were Tivo'ing the game, he paused it and answered the phone. It was his dad.

    After he got off the phone, I told him, "You know, I don't particularly care for basketball, especially on TV, but I wouldn't dare call a basketball fan during, say, the Final Four." He nodded in assent.

    My parents, in general, don't care that much about pro football. They do, however, follow college sports and sometimes the Atlanta Braves, and have some concept that important games are on. If they had called during the game on Sunday night, there would have been a really good reason.

This also plays out another way.

    At church.

    Let's face it, there were several people conspicuously absent from Sunday night services this past week.

    And there's always that tension between the people who want to just show the Superbowl on a big screen at church, thereby making it so people don't have to choose between the two, and those who just can't see any sort of merit in that at all. There's a third group here - those that absolutely want to watch the game, just not at church - where's the fun in that? Since neither wants the game shown at church, the second and the third group sometimes manage to vote down the first.

    They just have very different motivations.

    To be honest, I usually don't have that much interest in the Superbowl myself. But this year is different.

    So, for the few friends I have that are "non-sports people", on February 7, beginning at 5:25 central time and lasting for a few hours, don't call me. Unless of course you have had some terrible emergency and need to go to the hospital.

    We'll go in my car. I've got Sirius radio and we can listen on the way.

    And by the way, who dat?